The 3 Free Apps I Wish I’d Had With My First Baby (So We Built Them)

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know this blog basically runs on checklists — the hospital bag, the registry, the endless lists of baby names I can’t stop writing. And for years, I kept having the same thought at 2am: why isn’t there just an app for this that isn’t… a lot?

You know the ones I mean. Seventeen screens of ads. A login wall before you’ve done anything. Trackers that want your due date, your location and your firstborn (ironic, given the job).

So this year we did the slightly unhinged thing: we built our own. Three little apps — one for each season of this whole adventure — and as of this week they’re all live. They’re free to download, there are no ads in any of them, and each one does exactly one thing, calmly. Here they are.

1. Baby Names — for the “we can’t agree on anything” season

This is the one I’m most excited about, because naming a baby is the one decision you genuinely can’t split down the middle.

You each swipe names on your own phone — and the moment you both say yes to the same name, you both get the ping. It’s honestly a little addictive. Every card has the meaning, origin and live popularity (so you’ll know if your “unique” pick is secretly #4 in the country), there’s a proper pronunciation on tap, and when you finally find the one, the app turns it into a free printable Name Art nursery print.

2. Baby Prep — for the “is it too early to pack the hospital bag” season

Everything this blog has ever nagged you (lovingly) to do before baby arrives, in one calm place: the registry narrowed down to what you’ll actually use, the hospital bag checklist readers have been packing from for years, and trimester-by-trimester to-dos that quietly tell you what matters now and what can wait.

No feed. No community tab. No “baby is the size of a kumquat” notifications at 6am. Just the list, and the lovely feeling of ticking it off.

3. Baby Days — for the “what day is it” season

The newborn weeks are a blur by design, and every pediatrician visit starts with questions you swear you knew the answer to. Baby Days logs feeds, sleep and diapers in two taps — genuinely doable one-handed at 3am — and keeps everyone on the same page: you, your partner, grandma, the night nurse. No more “when did she eat?” texts.

The patterns build themselves, so when the doctor asks, the answer is just… there.

(Baby Days is on iPhone today — the Android version is on its way.)

And one more thing on the way

Baby Journey — all three of these in a single app, from two pink lines to first birthday — is in final review as I write this. If you’d rather have one app for the whole ride, that’s the one to watch for. You can always see what’s live (and what’s next) on our apps page.

The honest fine print

All three apps are free to download and free to use. Each has an optional Pro upgrade for the power features, which is what keeps this whole thing running without a single ad — but the core of every app is free, forever, because that’s the version I needed at 2am.

If you download one and it helps even a little, a quick App Store review would mean the world — it’s genuinely how other mamas find them. And if there’s something you wish one of them did? Tell me. We build fast around here. 💛